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HELLDIVERS to liberate on PlayStation Plus this February

During the month of February, Helldivers everywhere will be relieved to see their numbers positively reinforced by the influx of new PS Plus recruits.

HELLDIVERS start deploying to PlayStation Plus today!

The PS Plus update should already be rolling out to you all, and accompanied with that there are sales on bundles and DLC on all platforms.

US region offers 40% off all DLC packs and bundles for all players and 50% off for PS Plus subscribers, while EU region is 50% off all DLC packs and bundles for all players and 60% off for PS Plus subscribers.

We hope that this growth in numbers will spread hope and courage to all the troops on the frontline as reports of the Alien threats and their increasingly violent behaviour have become more and more worrisome.

HELLDIVERS in Humble Store

Until the end of the month Helldivers can take this opportunity to regroup, restrategize and resupply in order to liberate the undemocratic Alien anarchists that threaten Super Earth and the Freedom of its citizens.

To get all fresh recruits going, the PlayStation Helldivers forum is a great place to meet players of all levels. We always keep an eye on it to help out.

For the PC recruits, the Steam Helldivers forum is a good portal and we hang out there equally often to answer questions.

On PS4 you can also join our dev-made community HELLDIVERS by Arrowhead which you find easiest by looking up the user Arrowhead_Plays and scrolling to the Communities section.

Remember, new recruits have gone through rigorous training to become the elite squad members you see today. Do not worry – your safety is in their hands.

It’s amazing how fast this first year of Helldivers has gone! But I guess this happens with all new borns ;)

We don’t have more word about new content and plans for 2016 yet, apart from us having just started work on the secret project. I hope we can let you all in a little in a not too distant future!

We would of course like to be able to release all kinds of more stuff with Helldivers, but many factors are in play here. As soon as we have more definite news we’ll let you all know! :)

Muts

Hum.. secret project… :)

Another thing to keep in mind for 2016…

Well, it’s a long shot… but I hope you guys launch it on Vita as well (I just have it for Video Games right now) =]

Timothy Malouff

Not far Arrowhead, If we already purchased Helldivers we would be missing the Terrain Specialist Pack that is on sale 40% off $1.79 without PS+ or 50% off $1.49 With PS+ & not part of the Reinforcements Mega Bundle.

So new people will get that for free & can save more on the Mega Bundle ?

We always try and keep up with posting news as soon as we have them official and ok from the source but many things like these aren’t announced until they are live. As we don’t hold any control over sales, prices, promotions or vendors, we mostly relay information when we can.
Happy to hear your feedback though!

Timothy Malouff

Well the PS Store blog.us.playstation.com finally went live & confirmed that the Democracy Strikes Back Edition is a Slap in the Face Edition to everyone who already Purchased Helldivers & has Playstation Plus.

At least with every other Edition the DLC was evened out in the Mega Bundle.

However, as the Terrain Pack is not in the Mega Bundle or given free to Playstation Plus Subscribers it really is a Slap in the face.

To bad we can’t exchange purchased editions.

I hope you plan out and handle your DLC for future games a lot better than you did with this game.

The PS Plus version here (Sweden) doesn’t seem to have the Terrain Specialist. It could differ in different regions however.
We have no say or control in setting up the store, what’s available in which regions, DLC, prices, bundles, sales or similar. The Store is completely controlled by Sony. I will bring it up with them and see if they can arrange something.

Derek Jacobs

I think he means:

People should be able to get the Terrain Specialist DLC for free like everyone else, but they’re barred from that because they paid for the game before.

They’re not presented the offer to redeem free content or upgrade existing versions to an even better, available free version. Something like “Playstation Plus users get the Terrain Specialist pack for free!”

It’s like if you bought a movie ticket, then the theatre had a free showing of the same movie with complimentary popcorn, but they won’t allow people who paid to claim the free popcorn.

Timothy Malouff

You got what I was talking about.

However in your popcorn example I am assuming that a person could go to the free movie again for the free popcorn and not watch the movie.

Talked to Sony and the Terrain Specialist is included for free in the Democracy Strikes Back edition in the US, but while other versions were active you would get another DLC included, for example the Ranger during the release of Helldivers.
People getting the PS Plus version now get one DLC, but not other that earlier adopters got.

From what I can see
of the PS Plus version here (Sweden) the Terrain Specialist is not
included in it. This can differ in different regions however.
We have
no say or control in setting up the store, what’s available in which
regions, prices, bundles, sales or similar. The Store is completely
controlled by Sony.

I will bring th matter up with them and see if anything can be done.

Timothy Malouff

Thank You so much for finally understanding me, explaining what’s happening behind the scenes, and offering to tell the Publisher Sony about my problem.

After checking with Sony, here’s an explanation of the situation.
The Terrain Specialist was included for those purchasing the game from the store while “Democracy Strikes Back” version was active. That’s why some PS Plus members get it included now (US region has that version on PS Plus). While “vanilla Helldivers” was the active version players got the Ranger pack instead, and while the other versions were the current ones those included different DLC too.

So; right now players getting the Democracy Strikes Back version gets one DLC included, but they don’t get other things that earlier adopters got instead.

Derek Jacobs

Just to add onto this, Playstation Plus subscribers who are new users are getting Terrain Specialist AND Ranger both. Confirmed that by asking players in my matches. Don’t know if that was a mistake made somewhere or intentional.

Rob

this is confirmed. two of my friends jumped in with the PS plus offering and they have both terrain and ranger. I’m happy my friends are finally in the game and they are happy and challenged by the game as well ;) However, as a day one buyer, and buyer of the megapack, I feel a little left out by missing the terrain specialist.

PS plus has a little bit of a problem as far as training people not to buy games that might come out for free, but this little thing with the terrain specialist stings especially hard for current owners who would otherwise just be happy to finally see more of their friends try out the game. especially when you are the one stuck trudging through the middle of a swamp…

Timothy Malouff

Not only that but earlier adopters would have been charged twice for a DLC Pack as whatever prior version of the game was purchased the DLC was included in the Mega Bundle.

Not the case with the Democracy Strikes Back Edition.

Celebsul

I love this, it’s great! I’m just frustrated that as someone who bought the original Helldivers game I appear to be unable to get this Democracy Strikes Back edition from the Playstation Store. I don’t even see an option to buy the Democracy Strikes Back edition outright as DLC for my base Helldivers game.

Hello,
Wonderful to hear you love Helldivers!
Democracy Strikes Back is a free expansion that was released to everyone as a patch. If you run the game, in your title screen you should see that you also have Democracy Strikes Back (and the other two free expansions)

Hello, if you mean the problem with most things being dark, we’re investigating and working on a fix.
In the PlayStation Helldivers forum you can see details about the current status of any issues, and what we’re doing

Hi there, after checking with Sony, here’s an explanation of the situation:
The Terrain Specialist was included for those purchasing the game from the store while “Democracy Strikes Back” version was active. That’s why some PS Plus members get it included now (US region has that version on PS Plus). While “vanilla Helldivers” was the active version players got the Ranger pack instead, and while the other versions were the current ones those included different DLC too.

So; right now players getting the Democracy Strikes Back version gets one DLC included, but they don’t get other things that earlier adopters got instead.

iMad108

As always, Asian PS plus have the most stingy promotion if any, 40-50% discount on all DLC for US and EU but nothing for fans in Asia. No wonder most Asian players prefer to subscribe US PSN account over the Asian psn, “great work” SONY.

iMad108

Just compared the free game between PS Plus ASEAN with US, the ASEAN region only gets the bare bone Helldivers for free. Again, Asian PS4 supporters are shortchanged by SONY.

The expansions Democracy Strikes Back, Masters of the Galaxy, and Turning Up the Heat were free patches and those will be included for everyone. When you start up the game you can see in the title screen that they are available to you.
If there is any other content that differs in the PS Plus deal, that’s up to each region however. You could write to Sony to make sure they know how fans feel.

Elethen

Hey Arrowhead, can you post whether or not you’re aware of the apparent server issues on PSN now that the game has been inundated with new players? I’ve been reading reports that lots and lots of people (not just me) are having game-breaking disconnection issues. Do you have any plans to address this? I’m glad everyone is enjoying your game – as it is great – but we all know how fickle folks are and if the servers aren’t keeping up with demand, they may not continue playing (which would fix the problem on it’s own, I suppose?)

After receiving some complaints from players about server connectivity we assumed that there was some issue on our end due to the huge influx of all the new PS+ players. After investigating the issue (which curiously occurs seldomly on PC although it’s the same servers) we’ve concluded that most of the issues aren’t derived from our side, and as far as our diagnostics show the servers have been running smoothly.

We will continue to work with Sony and look into the cause but hopefully it will soon be up and running for everyone again! In the meantime we are still further improving and optimising our servers to give all players an even better Helldivers experience.

Some details about types of connection problems:

– Helldivers uses P2P servers (no dedicated servers), meaning users connect directly to each other over PSN, and nothing regarding user to user connections is handled on our servers. There is no communication with our servers during a mission, only before and after.

– Host Migrating means that the hosting player has disconnected and the host position is being moved to the next player.

– If you get kicked from the middle of a mission with a message about being kicked, it usually means that another player has kicked you.

– If you disconnect in the middle of a session and return to the main menu, it usually means that you have lost connection to PSN for a certain amount of time. This usually reconnects within just a number of seconds.

Dee Dawk

Hey, I’m loving this game so far but I’m having a lot of connection issues. I’m sure it’s not my connection, do you guys know if there’s too much traffic on the server causing issues?

Elethen

It isn’t you, it is just about everyone on PSN. Reddit is full of threads about it. It is server-side. I advise patience as it is 6:30pm on a saturday in Sweden.

Omg … I live in Czech republic and have bought Vanilla version from PS store before was PS+ version released … Now i see my friends recieved achievements from PS+ : HELLDIVERS:SUPER EARTH EDITION and in this content is included REINFORCEMENTS:MEGA BUNDLE …. And now I have only one simply question : Why original owners of Helldivers don´t recieve complete Reinforcements mega bundle also ?
Its unfair – (Why I bought your game ? The lesson for next time?! :(((( )

Joshua Rae

games reduce in value like anything else. The new content was most likely offered free with the game to attract new buyers. by your own logic, anyone who buys any day one game should get a free season pass.

Lukehalpin

The expansions were never paid content, so they were included for all owners, whether you bought the game before or got it from PS+. So if your game is updated, then you have the same thing that PS+ subscribers received.

iMad108

SONY should be reminded that in the age of internet, users from every region knows what the other regions are getting, any “discrimination” in terms of game offering does not bear well for customer loyalty. We knew games such as helldivers will surely become free on PS Plus one day, but we did not expect to be shortchanged by SONY in the way that certain region got the game free with all the whistles while original purchasers of the game (“Ultimate version” some more) don’t even get to enjoy DLCs given free to certain region.

Diego Rumeau

Please……Up to level 100. Good Work!!

Joshua Rae

Hey I would like you to pass this on to the developers for me please. Can we please get a sidearm weapon slot for our pistols and one hand weapons? I don’t think this would be unbalanced, just reduce the magazines carried to one half for one handed weapons chosen as a sidearm. I love the magnum but always have to toss better perks for my weapon preference. Also, perhaps a perk for faster reloads on larger weapons such as the mg-98 would be an excellent addition? I personally enjoy the co-op assisted reload weapon mechanic but I believe the Recoilless Rifle is the only option in that regard, perhaps I may be mistaken. Finally, and this one was greatly supported among my buddies; please for the love of all that is holy, make a stratagem radar backpack that allows for your radar to be constantly viewable to yourself and also to your teammates without having to stop and whip it out. Or at least make radar standard equipment for anyone in the driver seat of a vehicle, it really breaks the immersion to have to pull over my tank every 10 sec to look at my radar….I’m in a darn tank, it should be on the dashboard. Hope this makes it in!

Joshua Rae

Slot for grenades as well, please. Same argument as the sidearms. The perk slot has way too many solid options to ever bother with wasting it on smoke grenades. however; if we could just choose a base grenade then you instantly have more character variation.

Lukehalpin

Just want to say this game is amazing! With the PS+ deal, I’ve been able to get two of my friends hooked, and get my brother back in the game too! We love playing as a team!

Leukwarm

I have enjoyed playing Helldivers (PS4, PS3 & Vita) this month, and was planning to purchase the Mega Reinforcement Bundle until the past four days of not being able to connect to any games in a reasonable amount of time (often more than 1 hour). My internet connection is solid and I don’t typically play at peak times – so frustrating, guess I’ll move on to the next game in my backlog…